Net Neutrality: What if it were Electricity Neutrality?

At the 1:37 mark, the video compares the conflict over Net Neutrality to one experienced by other industries; it goes on to frame today’s argument in light of electricity utilities; imagine if the power flowing to your home was treated non-neutrally. You’d get dimmer lights, then your utility trying to sell you a “Brighter Bulb” plan.

Allowing ISPs to establish and control fast and slow information highways will destroy the entrepreneurial essence of the Internet, savagely diminish Americans’ ability to create, share, learn and innovate using modern communication tools, hobble the country’s global competitiveness, and further feed social discontent steadily arising over clear indications of economic inequalities and signals that the U.S. government is run solely by those with the money to buy its legislators and bureaucrats.

If the FCC and its leadership of former industry insiders fail to implement Net Neutrality, it is clear that the agency, like many of our regulatory bodies, is yet another servant to the money flowing from well-funded interests, in this case monopolistic companies attempting to extract more profit from captured clients while offering the same or, more likely, worse service.

The Internet has evolved into something far beyond a nifty add-on to our daily lives; it is essential to our social, economic, political and cultural well-being. It is as important to our daily survival as water and electricity. Start treating it as such.

The FCC’s job is to work for the good of the American people. It needs to demonstrate that. The agency must enact true Net Neutrality.